The Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft and its three crew members successfully entered the fast lane to the International Space Station for an overnight rendezvous, being lifted into a very precise orbit by the Soyuz FG launch vehicle after its middle-of-the-night blastoff from Kazakhstan.

Russia’s Soyuz rocket made a nighttime liftoff on Friday to deliver the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft with Alexey Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Jeff Williams to orbit, setting out on a fast-track rendezvous with the International Space Station.

A crew of two veteran flight engineers and a rookie commander began an overnight link-up with the International Space Station on Friday, launching into the night skies over the Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Soyuz rocket.

Russia’s Soyuz rocket made a nighttime liftoff on Friday to deliver the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft with Alexey Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Jeff Williams to orbit, setting out on a fast-track rendezvous with the International Space Station.

Two Russians and one American Astronaut are on the eve of their launch on a half-year space flight to the International Space Station, starting with a thundering nighttime liftoff atop a Soyuz FG rocket on Friday.

The crew of Soyuz TMA-20M, Alexey Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Jeff Williams complete final launch preparations at the Baikonur Cosmodrome to get ready for liftoff aboard their Soyuz spacecraft for an express flight to the Space Station.

After being cleared for liftoff by the Russian State Commission, the crew of Soyuz TMA-20M, Alexey Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Jeff Williams, spoke to the media one last time on the eve of their launch to the International Space Station for a stay of nearly six months.

The Soyuz rocket for the launch of the next ISS crew has been assembled at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday and Tuesday to kick off the final days of preparations to set the stage for a Friday night liftoff.

The three members of the crew of Soyuz TMA-20M, Alexey Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Jeff Williams, along with their backups participate in the traditional flag-raising and tree-planting ceremonies as they continue their preparations for liftoff.

The next crew to fly to the International Space Station arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday to enter their final two weeks of preparations ahead of liftoff atop a Soyuz rocket planned on March 18.